This application relates generally to sensors on a vehicle, and more specifically to rain and proximity sensors on a given vehicle that detect the presence of rain and another vehicle in proximity to the given vehicle and adjust the action of windshield wipers to address material that may be splashed on the given vehicle by the other vehicle.
Rain sensors are being provided on vehicles for a number of purposes, including automatically turning on wipers when rain is detected, and adjusting the speed of the wipers based on the amount of rain that is detected. Rain sensors are particularly popular on luxury vehicles. However, the presence of other nearby vehicles can cause problems in using rain sensors to automatically control wipers in some situations. For example, problems can occur when a given vehicle with rain sensors is passing or following other vehicles that are in adjacent lanes, or when the given vehicle is behind another vehicle, or when other vehicles pass the given vehicle, or even when the given vehicle is approached by an oncoming vehicle. In such situations, rain water (or in some cases melted snow, mud, or other material) is often splashed by the adjacent or preceding vehicle from the roadway, or off of the other vehicle itself, onto the windshield (and other surfaces) of the given vehicle, potentially causing momentary blindness due to the heavier than anticipated amount of water (or snow or slush) overwhelming the current wiper setting, and thus potentially leading to an unsafe condition. Reaction time of current automatic wiper systems tend to be set to avoid oversensitivity so as to not change wiper speeds when not necessary, often leading to a lag in reaction to such splashing that exacerbates the problem.